Eni Aluko wins libel case as Joey Barton ordered to pay £339,000

Eni Aluko has won a High Court libel case, with the defendant ordered to pay £339,000 to cover damages and legal costs after a sustained social media campaign of harassment. Aluko, a former England international, attended the hearing and briefly said: "I'm glad it's the end." Her lawyer outlined that between January and August 2024 the defendant published 48 posts on X that amounted to a deliberately targeted campaign of vilification, wrongly accusing her of cynically exploiting her status as an alleged victim and labelling her a hypocrite.

One post even superimposed her head onto the body of serial killer Rosemary West; the court heard the campaign attacked multiple aspects of her life and caused enormous distress. The defendant was absent from the final judgment after being arrested and held in police custody in connection with a separate assault allegation.

His legal team accepted that the campaign amounted to harassment and that he should not have made the publications.

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